


You've Got Me

by icandrawamoth



Series: February Ficlet Challenge 2019 [1]
Category: The Extinction Cycle - Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, February Ficlet Challenge, M/M, Missing Scene, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 18:18:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17627255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icandrawamoth/pseuds/icandrawamoth
Summary: Beckham tries to comfort Horn after they find out about the fall of Fort Bragg.





	You've Got Me

**Author's Note:**

> For February Ficlet Challenge day one prompt "telepathy."

It feels like a long time after they hear about the fall of Fort Bragg that Beckham finally gets Horn to sit. The big man spends the intervening minutes alternately shouting, punching the wall, and just standing there looking lost, nearly catatonic with worry.

“ _Calm_ ,” Beckham insists finally, physically pressing him down onto the bunk.

“I don't know what I'm gonna do, Reed,” his best friend and partner babbles. “If Sheila and the girls are-”

“We don't know for sure.” Beckham takes his hand, trying to impart a sense of calm he doesn't feel. In truth, he couldn't understand better if he were telepathic. His own heart aches with the thought of what will happen if Horn's wife and their daughters are dead. Beckham had been close to them even before this whole vee thing had developed between Sheila, Horn, and himself. He may not be romantically involved with Parker's wife like he is the man himself, but they're close friends. And Tasha and Jenny are the daughters he never had. Just imaging the pain Horn himself will feel if he loses them is breathtaking.

“That's what's killing me,” Horn groans, tugging out of Beckham's grasp and burying his face in his hands. “They could be out there right now needing me. Or,” and here his voice drops to a whisper, “they could already be gone.”

Beckham sits beside him and grasps his shoulders. “We'll find a way to get to Bragg, and if they're there, we'll find them. I promise you that.” _And if they aren't,_ he thinks, _I'm still here. We still have each other._ He doesn't speak those words aloud, though. Beckham has no delusions that he can replace Horn's family.

Horn blinks up at him, seeming reading Beckham's mind. “You're here.” He drops his hands, seeming to lose his strength all at once. “I'd be going crazy if I were by myself right now, man.”

“You're got me,” Beckham affirms.

“Yeah,” Horn mutters, and he lets out a slow breath. He looks so exhausted all the sudden.

“You should rest,” Beckham says gently. “You can't do anyone any good like this.”

Horn nods, letting himself collapse back on the bunk without bothering to so much as take off his boots. “Will you stay?”

“Until you fall asleep,” Beckham promises. “Then I need to go check on Riley.”

Horn nods in understanding as Beckham goes to work on the other man's laces, dropping the boots beside the bed when he's finished. Then he moves up the bed, dropping a hand to smooth Horn's messy hair. “Sleep,” he encourages, “and when you wake up, we'll be that much closer to finding our way to Bragg.”

He closes his own eyes for just a moment, sending up a prayer that what they find there is good.


End file.
